That’s reflected in recent figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

In November 2007, the month before the recession began, 4.5 million Americans were working part time because of economic reasons. By July of this year that number had risen to 7.5 million. There are currently 118.5 million full-time workers and 28 million part-time workers in the U.S. That compares with 122 million full-time workers and 24.6 million part-timers in 2007.

Other figures show that many Americans are still considered long-term unemployed, meaning they have been without work for 27 weeks or longer. In July that figure stood at 3.2 million, which accounted for nearly 33 percent all unemployed Americans.

Paula Moffett knows all about long-term unemployment.

Moffett worked at Capitol Records in Los Angeles doing photo archiving and digital media before a layoff in August 2012.

“They got bought out,” the 53-year-old Perris resident said. “Sony bought one part and Warner Bros. bought the other part. That was when they laid some people off.”

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Moffett has been unable to secure a full-time job since.

“I’ve done freelance marketing and public relations for some funeral homes and for some artists, but that’s only about 10 to 12 hours a month,” she said. “I had $30,000 in disability insurance money saved up, but I’ve only got $2,000 of that left. That might last me another couple months.”

Many people lost their jobs or homes during the recession, but some wage gains have still been made.

In July the average hourly wage for a U.S. worker in the manufacturing industry was $24.89, up from $21.66 in November 2007 just one month before the recession hit. Hourly wages are also up in retail trade ($17.03 now compared with $15.18 in 2007), financial services ($30.80 now compared with $25.87) and education and health services ($24.67 now compared with $21.51).

“One of the reasons that consumers are still somewhat cautious is that many workers haven’t seen any significant increases in their wages,” Kleinhenz said. “They lost wages from being out of work or from wage cuts or freezes. They have not seen much improvement over and above the rate of inflation.”

The EDD’s 2013-2015 employment forecast predicts that California’s employment will increase by 4.3 percent between the second quarter of 2013 and the second quarter of 2015, reaching nearly 17.3 million jobs.

The biggest gain is expected to come in professional and business services with 667,000 jobs by the second quarter of 2015. The only industry that’s projected to decline during that time is manufacturing with a loss of 300 jobs.

There is some good news.

Southern California’s housing market has also gained traction. Home sales hit a three-year low in July because of higher prices and a limited inventory and the region’s median price for all new and existing homes and condos dipped 0.5 percent to $413,000. But June’s median price of $415,000 was the highest for any month since January 2008 when it was also $415,000, industry tracker CoreLogic DataQuick said.

“We’ve gained a lot of ground on home values, but we’re losing ground on sales,” said Tom Adams, owner of Century 21 Adams & Barnes in Monrovia. “We’re starting to see more competition from offshore money, all-cash deals and speculative buying. That’s pushed prices up and out of range for many people.”

Kleinhenz, of the LACED, said consumers have changed their habits in the wake of the Great Recession.

“The period before the recession was perceived to be a period of low risk, high gains and easy money,” he said. “People were using their homes as ATMs. They saw a housing market that was very buoyant and so people were tapping into the equity of their homes.”

It was a time of easy credit and free spending. But that changed as the nation’s recession began to take hold.

Subprime lenders that had given out mortgage loans like candy tightened their lending standards. Builders stopped building homes and consumers hunkered down with what little money they had.

It proved to be a wake-up call for many.

“Today the situation is much different,” Kleinhenz said. “Consumers tend to be more cautious and value oriented. They have also become better equipped to use all of those great things in their hands to access the Internet and do price comparisons. And you have to remember that 70 percent of the economy is consumer driven.”